Captain America Process

So for my first (more involved) process post, I figured I'd share a little behind-the-scenes look of that Captain America sketch I posted a couple of months ago. It's been by far the most popular sketch I've drawn this year, so I thought a few of you might like to see some of the steps that went into drawing it.

Like most of my art these days, Sam here was drawn digitally in Clip Studio Paint.

STEP 1

This was my initial sketch. Every drawing I do starts out pretty scribbly like this as I'm just trying to figure out a pose or design. As you can see, I initially thought I'd draw him a bit more curved, with his wings down. As if he's coming down for a landing. Thought a giant star behind him might be a nice design element.

STEP 2

But then after thinking about it for a few minutes, I decided a more heroic stance was better fitting for Sam's new public persona. This is me fleshing out that idea over the initial scribble; his feet firmly planted now and his wings up. Starting to put in some of his costume details here as well, always trying my best not to be too consumed with every detail. Simplicity can go a long way.

I thought maybe stripes might be more visually appalling than a giant star behind him.

STEP 3

Ultimately, I decided he should be flying (or at least floating). He does have wings! Putting his legs together also allowed me to include a little star shadow which I thought would be cute and fun.

STEP 4

Also Red Wing should be included.

STEP 5

Yay! I finally get to start "inking" it! This is the fun part: Figuring out all the various costume bits, working on the anatomy, trying to learn and improve as a cartoonist as I go. Still kinda happy with how that left hand tuned out.

I remember the biggest hurdle for this piece was the wings. How much detail to give them and how accurate I wanted them to mimic the MCU costume. In the end, I decided to simply go with what looked most appealing for my design/style, thinking of them more as eagle wings instead of falcon ones.

STEP 6

Final linework, now with the stars and stripes behind him.

I've been asked a lot about the "shading" technique used in the background. It's called tone scraping, and it's kind of akin to taking an eraser to traditional inks. I discovered it in CSP a few months ago and have been playing around with it ever since. It's been a great way to add a bit of texture and depth to a piece.

STEP 7

Coloring! I've actually gotten pretty quick at this stage. I stopped flatting my artwork and just go straight into coloring with highlights/shadows and work stuff out as I go. It makes the whole process a lot more relaxing and less technical. Often times I'm even using a single layer, even if I have an elaborate background.

STEP 8 (FINAL!)

Lastly, I color any linework that I feel might help the drawing "pop" off the page. I can be kinda finicky here, testing out what and what not to highlight, which colors to use, stuff like that. Once I'm 95% satisfied, I upload to the internet and hope it makes a few people smile. :)

I hope that was informative/interesting! Please leave a comment and LMK know what you thought. The more feedback I get, the more I can cater these posts to what y'all want.